RedHanded - Episode 106 - Train Tracks: The Murder of Vera Jo Reigle

Episode Date: August 8, 2019

Vera hadn't had it easy; she was a vulnerable woman who had coped with ADHD, serious learning difficulties and sexual abuse all her life. At the age of 22 she began dating a 16 year old boy named Zachary Brooks. And while this may sound predatory, it wasn't Vera who was the dangerous one. It was the matriarch of the Brooks family - Cheri Brooks aka "Sugar Babe".  When Vera got pregnant, Cheri's determination to meet her grandchild created a horrifyingly dangerous situation for the young mother.    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Get ready for Las Vegas-style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette. With our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games and signature BetMGM service, there's no better way to bring the excitement and ambiance of Las Vegas home to you than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today.

BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hannah. I'm Saruti.

And welcome to Red Handed. Oh my God, I fucking, my God, my brain has just given up. It's because you know what's about to come. It's because you know what's about to come. And welcome to Red Handed. We've got a listener request this week. So we are watching what you post in the group, in case you think that we're not. I look at basically all of it.

But we'd actually never heard anything about this case until someone posted it in the Facebook group. So before we get going, I am going to issue a warning, but like a sadness warning. A lot of vulnerable people get hurt this week. If that's something you find particularly difficult, maybe this week is not for you. Because this week we are dealing with incest, child abuse, torture, a miscarriage of justice, piss poor child protection services, a pig living in a cupboard and a murder. So you have been warned. Abandon hope or ye who enter here, honestly, like it's going to get really bad. And I really enjoyed when you were listing what's coming up in this episode where you really put the emphasis. A pig living in the cupboard.

The incest, the rape, the torture. But there's a pig living in a cupboard. I think I'm developing quite an unhealthy obsession with pigs. Like I've just been like reading all about pigs all day. Good. Research. Show research. Buy your tour tickets.

And I watch loads of videos about Coco the gorilla. Whatever it takes. We've got to stay sane. Yeah, exactly. Giving the game away, we're off to Findlay, which is in Hancock County, Ohio. And according to the FBI, if you are in Findlay, you have a one in 29 chance of being a victim of a violent or property crime. So I think that tells you basically all you need to know. It would seem that Findlay, or as it's sometimes called Flag City, is not the safest place in the world. I'd never heard of it. I've never been to Ohio. So I tried to like get a little bit of a feel for

Findlay and I stumbled across this list on the internet, which is from like visitfindlay.com or whatever. And apparently these are seven things that you will only see in Findlay. And they are waves from strangers, small bikes, aggressive mall walkers, spiteful boredom, more jobs than workers, awesome restaurants, and my personal favourite, sunsets. Wow. You heard it here first. You can only see a sunset in Findlay, Ohio.

It's the only place in the world. I really enjoy the description of boredom as being spiteful. Spiteful boredom, yeah. Because they're just saying, oh, like, there's actually loads of stuff to do. People just like saying that they're bored. That's what they mean by it. Just go and watch the sunset. That's very good.

I like that. That is what my town is full of. People who are just spitefully bored. Love it. So today we are kicking off where so many of us misspent our youths, in a skate park. Teenager Travis Brooks was skating with his mates, brother and cousins in 2009. This group of teens were known in Findlay as the Brooks Boys, and they were a total fucking nightmare. They carried knives, they caused trouble,

and they started fights. I don't know whether someone dared him to do it or whether he was just showing off. But Travis skated onto the nearby train track. And as we all know, Hannah's number one rule is to stay off the train tracks. Travis didn't listen. Yeah, don't play with Ouija boards,

stay off the train tracks. Those are my rules for life. And he didn't listen to you because he got right onto those train tracks with his fucking skateboard. And as he turned back to look at his brother a train shot by taking his head clean off his body i don't want to do a spoiler but hereditary that's all i was thinking very like that it's literally just seconds it's like final destination shit terrifying so seconds, another train swept

past and turned Travis's body into what his aunt described as, quote, hamburger meat. His aunt was the matriarch of the Brooks Boys gang and her name was Sherry Brooks. But everybody seems to call her Sugar Babe. Yeah, if you're going to pick any name for yourself in the world, are you going to pick Sugar Babe? I don't think so. What would you be called if you could be called anything in the world? I don't know, but I was going to say there was an entire band of multiple different women that just rotated in and out of it called Sugar Babes. That's true.

It's just Sherry Brooks is not a Sugar Babe kind of woman when you look at her. I had completely fucking forgot about the Sugar Babes. Jeez, you've just blown my mind. You know Heidi from the sugar babes was at our Ted Bundy thing? Yes. I didn't see her, but you told me on the night. Crazy. Yeah, Selena spotted it.

Hawkeye. We're not going to be calling her that, but that's what her nickname is. And the documentary on this case is called Goodnight Sugar Babe. And it's on Vimeo. It's on Amazon Prime. And after you listen to this episode, you can decide for yourselves whether you want to watch it or not. Yeah, you don't need the added layer of Sugar Babe. So Sherry Brooks, which is her real name,

ruled her family with an iron fist. She was abusive sexually, physically and emotionally towards her own children, other people's children and everyone who lived in her house, which was a hell of a lot of people, some of them related to her and some not. And on that note, there are a lot of names in this case because it's a massive incestuous family that we're dealing with this week. So in the interest of keeping the episode moving and stopping everyone's heads exploding with confusion, there are some members of the Brooks family that we will be leaving out. If you want to learn all 700 billion of their names, you can go and watch the documentary.

So let's keep on having a look at this Sherry Brooks character. She had such a hold over the Brooks boys and the rest of her family that you will often see her compared to Charles Manson. Which is a funny coincidence because Sherry, just like Manson, was bounced around the foster care system in Ohio. And although they were 30 years apart, they spent time in the same cities. I'm going to say right now, there is absolutely no way that Sherry Brooks has even the tiniest amount of intelligence that Charles Manson had. It's a completely different thing. If you watch any interviews with her, I don't think she comes across as a particularly intelligent person. I think she just is very, very abusive. She wasn't like Manson, like using techniques from how to

gain friends and influence people. Like she's just nasty. I think that's the key difference. She gets by through fear and intimidation rather than through coercion and intelligence and manipulation. It's just, yeah, completely different with her. And the people that she manipulates are incredibly, well not manipulates, the people that she abuses and controls are incredibly vulnerable people. Sherry was taken into foster care when she was about four years old because her dad was molesting her. And it was actually her dad that had given her the nickname Sugar Babe and she insisted that everyone called her that forever. All of Sherry's other siblings were adopted. But Sherry was bounced around from foster home to foster home until she was old enough to fend for herself. And care leaving isn't something that we've discussed on

the show really. But I do think it's quite important. Like the word care leaving refers to someone who's grown up in foster care and then when they're old enough, they're just sort of sent off into the world with no family, no money, no support. And it can be quite a daunting experience. And it certainly was for Sherry. She returned to her abusive father's house after she left the care system and the abuse continued. Even after Sherry left home and got married, her dad would kick her husband out of bed so that he could sleep with his own daughter. This is so like Rose West and the relationship with her father. Like even into adulthood, the sexual abuse continues. There

are a lot of parallels between Sherry and Rose West, but again, I don't think Sherry's as smart as Rose. Now Sherry goes on to do terrible things. But this intro isn't an attempt to make you feel sorry for her. It's just a bit of background. A lot of this story really reminds me of the Hodel family in the Root of Evil series. And if you haven't listened to that podcast, Hannah and I would definitely really recommend it. It's amazing and it illustrates how victims of abuse, not all victims of abuse, but how some victims of abuse can go on to abuse others. There's an entire episode on it in that podcast series called Traumatic Reenactment.

And I think that is... Yeah, and that's what Sherry is doing. Honestly, I've listened to it about three times now. I forced everyone to listen to it with me on the way back from Wales the other weekend. I was like, well, I'm driving, so I'm choosing. That's one of the perks of that. No, I told everybody I know to listen to Root of Evil and one of my friends, she was like, oh yeah, all downloaded. I'm going to listen to it on the way to work tomorrow. About 9.30, I get a voice message. So not even a WhatsApp, a voice message

on WhatsApp saying, what the fuck did I just listen to? I was like, mate, you're into episode one. You need to, you need to fucking have some chill if you're going to get through the next eight episodes. But it is very, very traumatic to listen to, but it is a very, very good podcast. A lot of similarities to what's going on here because the whole idea of that cycle of abuse leading to more abuse, traumatic reenactment, is exactly what Sherry did. All in all, Sherry had nine children. Five of them were taken away from her because of allegations that she was molesting them. And it was pretty common knowledge in Findlay that Sherry Brooks could not love her children without molesting them.

If the children were boys, she wasn't that bothered when they were taken away, but Sherry was obsessed with baby girls. In particular, she loved her baby girl, Maria. So much so that Sherry's own mother pointed out that Sherry loved Maria so much that she managed to keep her for a whole year before CPS took her away. Wow. Obviously, her mum has a huge part to play in this because she's just letting her dad molest her all this time but like that's your marker like oh she managed to keep hold of that one for an entire year what an excellent mother that's how much she loved that baby and it also wasn't like she kept hold of her that year because she wasn't abusing her she kept hold of her for that year by

just sheer fucking luck that nobody found out what was going on but eventually they did after this year baby maria was taken away from Sherry after she was taken to hospital because she was bleeding from her vagina. She had clearly been sexually penetrated by something. Sherry claimed that she was changing baby Maria's nappy when she noticed the blood and blamed the rape on a man who was staying in her house at the time. That man is now in prison for the rape of two 12-year-old girls,

which is obviously abhorrent. But how likely is it that if 12-year-old girls are his, I don't know how to word this, how likely is it that he would be raping babies and 12-year-old girls? This is the thing, it's hard to know. Some sex offenders are obviously preferential. They only have one type of or one sort of group of victims that they like to go after. Some aren't so preferential and they're more opportunistic. But, you know, she's got fucking form. So she's as good as a suspect as he is. She's got a track record.

Four of her other children have been taken away from her house because she was doing the exact same thing to them. And also we will see so much this week. Shererry is a fucking liar and she's a bad one she just talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and it's so clear that she believes what is coming out of her mouth it's like when children lie to adults and you're like do you genuinely think i was born yesterday she thinks everyone was born yesterday it's like intense narcissism that she thinks she can just say whatever she wants but it's not like a it's not an intelligence thing like i think she's i think she's thick as pig shit but i think she just like just talks things into existence and then is surprised when no one believes her you can be an intelligent narcissist and you can be a fucking stupid narcissist and that's what she

is the latter but the thing is um as hannah said know, so many of her kids were taken away from her. By this point, four other children had been taken from her house because of the allegations of molestation that were going on there. But despite this, Sherry was never charged with child abuse, molestation or even neglect. Christ knows how. Must be an evidence thing. I think there are always allegations that these things are going on. I don't think it's ever proven and that's how she manages. But also, this has just come into my head. Like if she's molesting babies, it's not like you can put a baby on the stand and be like, where did she touch you? Yeah. And is not the only failing of the government systems that we will see in this episode. So that's the head of the family. And also, her house was filled with various children of hers and their partners.

We haven't been able to figure out exactly how many people lived in the Brooks home of 300 Center Street, Findlay, Ohio. But I think at one point, there were about 15 people living in that two-story house. This really reminds me of the Suzanne Capper house way back. That's exactly what it is. In an early episode where it's just like squalor and like loads of people living there. A bit of a doss house, just like, ooh. And these kids.

And she loves it. She wants people in her house so she can control them. She wanted more people in the house because she wanted babies. All of her sons, most of whom were still teenagers, had live-in girlfriends. And Sherry would nag them constantly for grandchildren. God, this is just so fucked up. And we're not even at the worst of it yet.

And she would talk about how much she wanted grandchildren to the point that she was demanding them from her sons and their live-in girlfriends on cue. Sherry told everyone under her roof that if it was a baby boy, baby was all theirs. But if anyone living in the house gave birth to a baby girl, then that baby belonged to Sherry. Sherry was desperate for a baby girl. It didn't matter whose it was and it didn't matter how she got it. Sherry was actually on her baby stealing hype before she moved to 300 Centre Street. When baby Maria was taken from her, she was living with her husband Kevin in an apartment building. In the same building lived a lady called Verna Messersmith. And Verna had a baby daughter called

Vera, who was about the same age as Sherry's daughter Maria. And according to Werner, Sherry had made it quite clear that she wanted to take Vera away with her as a replacement for baby Maria. And weirdly enough, Vera would go and live with Sherry, but 20 years later, when Sherry was much less interested in her. So Vera's full name is Vera Jo Regal. I think that's her dad's name rather than her mum's name. She didn't live in an ideal home just because she avoided Sherry's baby snatching fingers. Vera's dad sexually molested

her and she became estranged from her mother. Vera's mum is in the documentary and she gives a lot of interviews, but it's not made clear exactly what happened apart from Vera's dad molesting her. Vera had severe ADHD and you will see it reported all over everything on this case that she had the mental capacity of an eight-year-old. I'm not sure if this is an official diagnosis or what the people of Findlay have just decided. But if we look at what it means to be, you know, at different stages of development as a child, when a child is eight, they start to understand trade-offs. Like, if I do my homework now, I can watch The Simpsons later.

It's at this point that kids start to form logical arguments. When kids get to 11, they start to think of themselves as individuals, which is why preteens may not always do as they're told. So even when Vera was in her 20s, she was a people pleaser. One of her teachers said that she took it too far. She would always do what she was told, which meant that for master manipulator Sherry, Vera was an incredibly easy target. By the time she was 22 years old, Vera had managed to get her high school diploma with the help of a special ed teacher at the local high school. She was living with her aunt and Vera started a relationship with 16 year old Zachary Brooks who was one of Sherry's sons and one of the sons that she'd actually managed to keep hold of. Now that age difference

might make it seem that Vera was taking advantage of a vulnerable young kid with a rough home situation but when you take into account Vera's so-called mental age, it starts to seem that it was much more the other way around. Zachary Brooks wanted to appease his mum, Sherry. Sherry wanted more babies. So she was very encouraging of her spawn collecting long-term partners, no matter how young they were. Before long, Vera left her aunt's house

and moved in with the Brooks family at 300 Centre Street. Sherry and her clan took total advantage of Vera's need to please, and soon she was basically living as their slave. Her specific task was to rub Sherry's feet in the evening. Quick word about Sherry. She is morbidly obese, and she had type 2 diabetes as a result of this, and she used a wheelchair to get around. I've never seen any footage of her not in a wheelchair and I think this is because of her weight and foot problems

possibly caused by her diabetes. Either way rubbing Sherry's feet is probably not the most pleasant task. While she's living at 300 Centre Street with the Brooks family members of Vera's own family would see her out and about with the Brooks family but she would never speak to them. She would just put her hood up and say that she couldn't talk. She was always afraid of getting in trouble with Sherry. And she was right to be afraid. Sorting out Sherry's feet was just the start of what she would endure at the Brooks house. Quickly, Sherry had all of Vera's disability benefits rerouted to her. In 2009, Vera fell pregnant with Zachary Brooks' baby, and she was told, just like everyone else in the house, that if the baby was a girl, then Sherry would claim it as her own. The baby was a girl, and Sherry Brooks was over the moon. According to the

occupants of 300 Center Street, many of whom gave interviews in their Sugar Babe documentary, Sherry was so keen to get the baby out of Vera and into the world that she fed Vera three bottles of castor oil to try and induce labour a month before her actual due date. And, you know, the idea of even feeding somebody castor oil to induce labour is just a bit of an old wife's tale. But apparently two tablespoons will do the trick. The trick being painful contractions and diarrhoea,

which can be harmful to both mother and baby. Imagine being made to neck three bottles. That just makes me want to vomit. So after this, Vera must have been in agony. The labour was complicated. But baby Willardine was born on the 4th of November 2009, a whole month early, just a day after Sherry's own birthday.

Like she was trying to give herself a little present. In later interviews, Sherry will happily talk about the fact that Willardine was premature, but because she just couldn't wait to be with her family for Thanksgiving and she wanted to eat with her more more, which is what she calls herself as like a grandma, Sherry conveniently leaves out the castor oil story and the significant heart problems that Willardine was born with as a result of coming into the world a whole month before she was ready Willardine did pull through her illness and she went to live with Vera, Zachary, Sherry and every other fucker in the Brooks house

Vera was not allowed to even touch Willardine if she tried to, Zachary would hit her Sherry slept with Willardine in her bed for the first six months of her life. And we should also mention that the Brooks house was not somewhere that humans, let alone children, should have been. It was filthy. No one ever cleaned it. And unbelievably, they had a pig that lived in one of their cupboards. And this pig was just free to run around and like pig about in this house with babies that's unbelievable and this is the worst bit this is the worst bit so the

equivalent of the rspca come to the brooks house and they take the pig away because of the unsanitary conditions of the house but no one comes for the human baby Willardine. They're like, no, definitely can't. Pigs cannot live here, but babies go off, go at it. Like, that's fine. Unbelievable. Having said that, the police were perfectly aware of the situation at the Brooks house. Sherry was very well known to the authorities, not only for the accusations of molestation levied against her,

but also she had a string of minor offences behind her. Sherry had been a petty criminal all her life, but she had never spent a day in prison. She had a habit of getting away with things, which of course only made her more arrogant and more manipulative. So many fights broke out at the Brooks house that the local 911 operator called the family frequent flyers and would immediately know of it if one of the

Brooks family was calling. The overload of emergency calls meant that police were sick of the Brooks family so when someone did call about something serious they were not going to take it seriously because the police were sick of going to 300 Centre Street. Vera's sister called the police in September 2010 to explain that Vera was being held against her will at 300 Centre Street by the Brooks family, but no report was ever filed. On January 21, 2011, the police responded to a domestic violence call at the Brooks house. Vera had a broken nose. Sherry told the police that Vera's boyfriend, who was black apparently, had broken her nose and then left. This was just one of the many fictions that Sherry had up her sleeve. Zachary had broken Vera's nose.

Vera wasn't allowed out of the house on her own or even allowed to have her own mobile phone. There's no way she would have been allowed to have some sort of extracurricular boyfriend. So Sherry, she just makes things up and apparently the police believe her. So after this beating, Vera had a bump above her right eye. She was told by hospital staff that it was likely that she was concussed and she might have had bleeding on her brain.

During this house call, the police never once questioned Vera without Sherry in the room. But they asked her whether she wanted to stay, whether she was safe and whether her baby was safe. And Vera replied that she was happy living with Sherry and that she didn't want to leave. There are two problems with this. Firstly, how could she say anything else with her abuser in the room? And secondly, quite a lot of people argue that police should have taken Vera's mental age into account. You wouldn't expect an eight-year-old to make a decision like that,

so why can they ask Vera to do the same thing? But I'm not even sure if Vera's ever been officially diagnosed with, the only thing she's been officially diagnosed with is ADHD. So like, what can they really do? They couldn't section Vera. She doesn't have any sort of treatable mental illness, it would seem. And she is an adult under the law. So they kind of just have to leave her there.

And I think it's quite a slippery slope if you sort of start saying that people with mental disabilities can't make decisions for themselves. Like, I think that's quite a tricky territory. The police leave Vera in the Brooks house with Sherry, Zachary and baby Willardine. The beatings continue over the next few months and Vera became more and more reserved. She would stay in her room as much as she possibly could. She only came out when she was called by Sherry. On the 20th of March 2011, the Brooks house welcomed two new visitors. Their names were Danny Bixler, 21, and his girlfriend, Nicole Peters, who was 17. Danny Bixler's dad was Sherry's cousin and former lover. Because, of course.

So Sherry's son, Scot Scotty was actually Danny's cousin and half-brother. You couldn't make it up, could you? No. So in an interview, Sherry jokingly refers to this relationship that she has with Danny's dad, who's her cousin,

as kissing cousins, which I guess is exactly what it is. She's not even embarrassed? No, no, that's the thing. She's saying it like it's a joke. It's not a joke. That's actually what this is. Exactly. She's like, oh yeah, they used to call us the kissing cousins i was like yes sherry because that's what you are that's putting it nicely yeah exactly i would have called

you a cousin fucker but you know each to their own now in later years sherry would try and they say hollywood is where dreams are made a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs,

a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mom's life. You can

listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. It read in part, This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me, and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding,

and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Make people believe that she didn't have that much to do with Danny. But as you can see from the intricacies of the Brooks family tree, that that couldn't be further from the truth. Danny had only been out of prison for three weeks. He had gone back to his hometown of Tiffin, which is about 25 miles away from Findlay. He had come out of prison with a teardrop tattoo, and it didn't take him long to get into trouble.

Him and Nicole were in a park in Tiffin and a kid refused to give up a swing so Nicole could sit on it. So Nicole flicked her cigarette into the kid's face and Danny Bixler beat him up so badly that he had to be hospitalized. Then both Danny and Nicole fled the scene knowing that they would now be wanted for assault. They headed to Findlay, which is where they end up with Sherry because they knew Sherry would take them in. So Danny was given a hero's welcome at 300 Centre Street because everyone thought his teardrop tattoo was the coolest thing they'd ever seen.

Facial teardrop tattoos can mean lots of different things depending on the side of your face that they're on, whether they're filled in, how many of them they are, where you are in the country, where you get it done, who gives it to you. And Danny Bixler has a very poorly executed filled in teardrop under his left eye. It's almost in the corner of his eye. And he told everyone that this was his badge of honour for killing someone and that it was a symbol that he would kill again.

It's been quite difficult to pin down an exact answer, but I have read that a filled in teardrop under the left eye isn't actually a badge of honour for murder. If the tattoo was administered in prison, which Danny's was, it usually means that the wearer has been humiliated or owned. In other words, there's evidence to suggest that Danny Bixler's facial tattoo was a clear marker that he had been raped in prison. But the Brooks family didn't know that. There was actually a lot about gang culture that they didn't know.

But in almost all of the pictures that you see of them, Sherry, Zachary and sometimes even Vera are throwing gang signs. Allegedly, one of Sherry's sons, who everyone called Punky, was a crip. I don't know how active the Crips are in Findlay, Ohio. Although both the Bloods and the Crips are predominantly black gangs, apparently once you get out of California, you will find white Bloods and you will find white Crips, which surprised me. And if you want a comprehensive overview of the Bloods and the Crips, I cannot recommend enough the documentary Bloods and Crips Made in America. It's amazing. Go and watch it. Did you know that the Bloods and the Crips started because

black kids weren't allowed in the Boy Scouts? No, I didn't. So whether they were actually Crips or not, we can't confirm. But the Brooks family certainly thought that they were. They threw around gang signs and often wore blue bandanas. Punky had been hit and killed by a car on the 4th of July 2011 while he was walking with his girlfriend to get some heroin. Sherry was devastated by the loss. She didn't care for her sons much but Punky was her least detested. So when he died she needed someone to blame and initially she told everyone that Punky's girlfriend had pushed him in front of the vehicle. But as soon as Danny and Nicole showed up at the house, Sherry changed her mind. And all of a sudden, Punky's

death was all Vera's fault. Sherry had a master plan and shifting this blame was just the first step. Punky's ashes were kept in the Brooks house on a shelf and the family had put a Kit Kat on top of it. Vera ate this Kit Kat and And this was another black mark against her name. No one was allowed to disrespect Punky. Now the timeline isn't very clear, but the treatment of Vera certainly got worse after Danny and Nicole showed up at the house. They took a padlock from a school locker and attached it to a belt. Then they used this and a large wooden paddle to beat Vera with mercilessly.

And this went on for about a week. Sherry also claimed that Vera intentionally dropped a brick onto her feet. Sherry literally would come up with anything to turn the household against Vera. And that's what she's doing. She's just making up all of these different things, being like, that's why she has to go. But her motive is questionable. There are differing opinions. Some people think that Zachary was done with Vera

and he wanted to sleep with other people and he didn't like Vera's jealousy, so he wanted her out of the way. But I don't think Zachary was calling any of the shots here. I think Sherry wanted Vera gone so that she could have Willadean to herself. And by gone, I mean murdered. I completely believe that Sherry was the mastermind

of what happens next. It was so obvious what Sherry had planned for Vera that Sherry's husband said to his children, if you're going to kill her, wait until I am in prison so I have an alibi. He was awaiting 30 days inside for a traffic violation, but he knew that Vera's days were numbered and he wanted to be no part of it. One thing that we may be skipping over by not telling you all of the names of the people who were living in the house is just how many people there were and every single one of them

knew what was happening to Vera and none of them did anything. Not a single one. And that for me is the most shocking thing about the documentary is that many members of the family openly discuss the finer details of the abuse that Vera suffered in the house, but not one of them takes the blame. But they will

happily tell the press all about the dog shit that Vera was forced to eat and how they raped her with a toothbrush while she was on her period and then they made her brush her teeth with it. I was so shocked by it. They were just like, yeah, and she did this and we were all there, but you know, I, you know, whatever. Wasn't me. A prime example of this shirking of responsibility is Shannon who was going out with another of Sherry's sons. So this is yet another situation that the Brooks blamed on Vera. On the 26th of March 2011 a can of mace was set off in the house and the whole family and presumably the pig had to be evacuated. Sherry claimed that this incident caused Shannon to miscarry her baby. So yet another black mark against Vera and another reason for the whole family to turn against her.

But Shannon now claims that she was never pregnant and the whole thing was made up by Sherry and she had absolutely nothing to do with it. But Facebook begs to differ. On the 24th of March 2011, so two days before, Shannon posted, just found out that i'm pg which one would assume stands for pregnant not pretty great or pig guts or pineapple goats like i think there's only like one way you can take that really but she completely to the interview in the documentary bare face lies about it weird maybe she just means she's um turned a corner and now she's gonna be pg from now on no more swearing no more sex no more rated r. Just found out I'm PG, guys. I'm going to be PG from now on. Golly gosh. Either Shannon was never pregnant and she just pretended

to be so to fit in with Sherry's Vera defamation scheme, or she did miscarry and now she's lying about it. Neither of them make her look particularly credible so we won't be paying attention to anything Shannon says from here on out and you won't really be hearing her name again to be honest. Now Sherry had successfully turned the whole family against Vera and the beatings just got worse. Vera was so injured that she was excused from her foot-rubbing duties. According to the residents of the house, Sherry started to make jokes about drugging Vera and leaving her by the train tracks. She was sure that no one would be able to identify the body because Vera would be turned into hamburger meat, just like Travis had been two years before.

On the 25th of March, the Brooks family took Vera over the road to the Salvation Army to have some lunch. Volunteers remember that Vera looked like she had been put through the windshield of a car. And the day after, the police were called to 300 Centre Street at 2.12pm, but they were not called because of Vera. They were called because Danny, Zachary and Nicole had started a fight with a rival gang down the street. Danny pulled a knife and as soon as they heard the police they were on their way knowing that both Danny and Nicole have warrants out for their arrest they ran back into the Brooks's home. They ran through the house and climbed out of the window and went on to one of their very many aunt's houses and this aunt happened to live just the other side of the

railway tracks. The police didn't go into the Brooks house. I think they were just sick of being there to be honest but if they had gone in they would have found a battered and bruised Vera, who was too afraid to leave. And I have a problem with the documentary. And this is why. At this stage in the story, the voiceover man says, quote, he says, a being named Vera, who was already living in the perpetual state of terror, who could no longer be considered human. Excuse me? Wow. I just, I was absolutely horrified by that. How can you say that she's not human because she's afraid?

Who's considering her not human? Honestly, some of the people that write these scripts or these documentaries, I'm like, did anyone even, just read this aloud. Just read this aloud to yourself. Best way to write a copy, write it, go into a room and read it aloud to yourself and think, does this make me sound like a horrible human being? In this case, yes, it would. So once the police had left, Zachary, Danny and Nicole returned to 300 Centre Street

and at about 9pm they told Vera to get her shoes on. Danny took a 10-inch knife from the kitchen and threatened Vera with it. So she went with them quietly. This was all captured on CCTV and when they got to the tracks they forced Vera to strip and then they stabbed her multiple times and they slit her throat from ear to ear with a blunt knife. Then they lay her out on the train tracks and left. But Vera was still alive and she curled into the fetal position. When Vera was curled up into a ball she was 12 inches high.

The fast approaching train had a clearance of 13 inches. So when the train comes, it goes straight over her. She's not touched by the train. She's like in between the tracks. But it wouldn't be enough. By the time the train driver had called 911 to report what he thought was a baby deer on the tracks, Vera had bled to death. Almost every bone in Vera's face had been broken and she had been stabbed 21 times. After Zachary, Danny and Nicole left the train tracks, they went home and they partied hard. Again, it's so similar to the Suzanne Capper story.

Like, it's very, very similar. And they told everybody what they'd done. But nobody really believed them. Sherry was very pleased with herself and she concocted a cover-up story. She told police that Vera's boyfriend had killed her. Again, Vera didn't have one. She never left the house. Where is she getting this other boyfriend from?

And the sickest thing is, Sherry told the police that Vera's mother was dead. So Sherry was the only one who could identify Vera's body. Despite all of Sherry's lies, this boyfriend story didn't last very long once the police found the CCTV footage. And when Sherry realized that the gig was up, she told anyone who would listen that they had been beating Vera up in the house and it was totally out of her control. So basically she just says, oh, it was all these kids. It was like Danny and Zachary and, you know, his girlfriend

doing all this stuff and I had nothing to do with it. It was totally out of my control. She's been presented with, like, irrefutable proof. She also said that she didn't call the police because nobody would pass her the phone. Because remember, she's slightly somewhat incapacitated. She's not incapacitated. She's morbidly obese and she can't move.

Like, that's it. But she literally says this. She was like, well, no one was going to pass me the phone. And then another one of them is like, oh, I didn't have any minutes on my phone. I was like, you don't need minutes to call 911. It's unbelievable the way these people talk and the way these people lie. Now, Danny, Zachary and Nicole were all arrested and the murder weapon was found in a nearby river and Sherry was never interviewed by the police. And do you know why that was? Because they didn't

have the correct kind of van to transport her wheelchair from the house to the police station. That's why they didn't interview her. Wow. Can you not interview her in her own house? Yeah, exactly. That's what I thought. I think she eventually does speak to the police station. That's why they didn't interview her. Wow. Can you not interview her in her own house? Yeah, exactly. That's what I thought. I think she eventually does speak to the police and stuff, but in the original investigation, they just believe everything she says. They let her identify the body and all of that.

Vera's mum lived in the same town. How did the police not know that she was still alive? It's only about 40,000 people. There's so much about this story I just don't understand. So after all this, both Nicole danny ended up in prison for vera's murder i think that danny was the one that was convicted of the murder i think they only get nicole on conspiracy to commit murder because she wasn't read her miranda rights when she was arrested and she just got a really fucking shit hot lawyer she walks out of it i mean not totally unscathed but it could have gone a lot worse so obviously with this sort of ending to this kind of story,

especially when the CCTV footage backing up what happened here, for the people of Findlay, this just wasn't good enough. In the end, so much pressure was exerted on the courthouse that Sherry was found guilty of perverting the course of justice by giving the police untrue information. So after that, Sherry was given five years probation. What even is the point of justice by giving the police untrue information. So after that, Sherry was given five years probation. What even is the point of that anyway? After Vera's death, Zachary attempted to get custody of Willardine, but no doubt on Sherry's instruction. In order to prove that he was a fit parent, Zachary had to attend supervised visitation sessions with Willardine. The first one was cut short because baby Willardine was in constant hysterics

and wouldn't let Zachary touch her. And then Zachary didn't show up for the second visit, so Willardine was put up for adoption. Zachary was found guilty of obstructing the course of justice and sentenced to four years in prison. Garbage trash monster Sherry may not have served time for her part in the murder of Vera, but she is now in prison for an unrelated drugs charge. But she will probably be out this year. So yeah, that is the horrifying story. Yeah, I hope you're all still here. Of Sherry fucking Sugar Babe Brooks.

And haven't jumped out the window. Go watch the documentary, what's it called again? It's called Goodnight Sugar Babe, and that's what Sherry claims Vera said to her as she left the house with Danny and Zachary and Nicole to go and be murdered. I love how she still made it about herself in the end. Yeah, yeah, literally. I think the thing that's so baffling to me is like they at no stage in this master plan do they think of anything else. They're just like, OK, well, we have to murder her, obviously.

And then we'll just say it was someone else's fault. So if you want to, you know, post something in the Facebook group yourself, you can do. Come join us at Red Handed The Pod on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, all that good stuff. While you're there, buy your tour tickets. While you're there, you will also see links, videos, all that sort of stuff to the tour. Buy your tour tickets. We are going to be in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff, not in that order but at those cities so if you are in there or near there buy tour tickets come see us we'd love to

see you other than that you can always help support the show in an ongoing manner on patreon.com slash red handed and here are another ton of people who have done so this week. Thank you very much, guys. Right, I'll start and then relay as usual when I break down. Tag team. So thank you, Michaela Martinez, Natasha Lapine, Daily Vasquez, Kristen Taylor,

Maria Gogan, Amanda Huggenkiss. I saw that on the list and I was like, well played, anyone. I just need a man to hug and kiss. Jem Evans, Macy Darling, Rebecca Solomon, Susan Sparrow, Emily O'Neill, Alicia Von Terrible, Shona Young, Sarah Kay, Sue Rains Collins, Francesca Bellingham, all caps, love it, Diane Trapp, Caitlin Bergstein, Selena Hammett, Amanda M. Jancy, Louise Stinchcomb,

Shay Reynolds, Tracy, Mimi, Kaylee Ambrose, Lauren Carden, Natasha, Julia, Kelly Martina, Sophie, Julia Schultz, Sarah Turner, Bailey Milne, Michael Dykes, Christy Dirk, Catherine Shannon, Elise Haplin, Emily Morrow-Fick, Natasha Stark, and I'll hand it over to you, Hannah. Chelsea Wheeler, Ben Jarrett, Leslie Christie, DeBurko, Katrina, Hannah Sloan, Fru Halgrim's daughter, Megan White, Sam Kearney, Nina Miller, Leslie White, Kelly Mantic, Siobhan Cotter, Heath Hall, Rebecca Coombs, Emily, Amber B, Brian Kyle McCord, Amber Green, Sydney, Sarah Graham, Tab Spangler,

we've definitely had you before. People are cancelling them and redoing it so they can hear us and their names wrong again. Patreon just fucking makes it up, man. I know. And where am I? Emily Clare, Larissa Solvjova, Sarah Reichart, Leila Nikola, Jacqueline Mogul, Jamie Horne, Rebecca Wilton, Elizabeth Morris, Kerry Thomas, Samantha Wilson, Jenny Amonet, Andrea Morong, Jay Graywell, and Guesty. Thank you ever so much, guys.

You are just keep coming and it's amazing. You guys are just the best listeners ever because you're just the gifts that keep on giving. So thank you so much because it makes the world of difference so thank you to everyone as well who's led lovely lovely posts on social media they're congratulating me on leaving my job that's also very sweet thank you guys very much you will hear us next week and we'll hopefully see you in september see you then bye Bye. Bye. He was hip hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame,

fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing

of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom, but I made no excuses. I'm disgusted.

I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudian Gay is now gone.

We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On the Media. To listen, subscribe to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts.